Having already exhausted such reflections as seem worthy of our deceased colleague, Dr. Hering, in connection with out two Philadelphia meetings, I had thought to remain silent here. It may explain the backwardness of other Philadelphia members, perhaps, to say that this is the case with many of them: they feel, too, that they have passed the subject of his death into the more sacred precincts of the memory. The revival of it, here, by us, you will therefore understand, is attended with something like the pain that one has in the uncovering of an old and partly healed wound, or one, at least which has become quiet; my colleagues from Philadelphia have, however, requested me to introduce this subject of national interest. Permit me, then, to make reference to my personal acquaintance with Dr. Hering, I will commence with one point, very important to me personally, by saying that in boyhood, when Dr. Hering was yet in the vigor of his youth, I was taken to him for the purpose of medical treatment by a friend of his, one of his early supporters, and also a friend of my own, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Bedell; and my recollection of the prescriptions made by Dr. Hering is that they were eminently successful. We had no further personal relations for very many years. In the meantime I had become a physician of the old school, later of the homoeopathic school. Even then my acquaintance with Dr. Hering was not renewed: this was partly owing to the fact that those from whom i had just derived my impressions of Homoeopathy were his opponents. They had disagreements in Philadelphia the city of brotherly love. It so happened that I learned my homoeopathy along with antagonism to Dr.Hering. I was taught to believe that he was a visionary; to use the words of my informant an eccentric.’ I, therefore, in all the pride of my youth, and with my but half regenerate allopathic mind, refrained from making his acquaintance, and I will add that I am heartily ashamed to have to say it. I was, however, introduced to Dr.Hering without my own knowledge, and in a way most characteristic of himself.
My home was in Illinois, a thousand miles from his. I made a two week’s proving of Gelsemium. Which was published in Dr.Shipman’s Journal of Materia medica. Dr.Hering’s peculiarity was that he would seize upon provings wherever he found them, and with the skill of the anatomist would dissect them, and determine their essential points. It was my good fortune, therefore, to meet Dr.Hering’s skill in the discussion of my proving of that drug. That is to say, he found therein, the now historical symptom, viz., that depressing emotions produce a tendency to diarrhoeic disturbance of the intestinal canal.
It was observed by me in April, 1861, on reading the telegrams of the firing on Fort Sumpter; these so disturbed me that I gave up the proving, and stated it a fact that the telegrams produced the effect. But Dr.Hering, with the sagacity which was so peculiar to him, with that keen eye and that analytical skill in Materia Medica, in which he was facile princeps, seized upon the very thing which I thoughts was vitiating the proving; said he, There is the grand characteristic of the drug. Years later, when I had returned to Philadelphia and become acquainted with him and others associated with him, I found that it had been erected into what is now called a key- note. He gave me back my finding; and there are a thousand other such gems that we owe to Dr.Hering. In this way, then, he had become acquainted with me, and when I met him in the college, he was prepared, and I was prepared to form, as we did form, a warm and sympathetic friendship. I soon found out that I had been utterly misled in regard to the character-the intellectual character, I mean, of Dr.Hering; no one dared breathe anything other than profound respect for his moral character. I have to say here, ladies and gentlemen, that I believe Dr.Hering has been unfortunately misunderstood in this respect. He had his own peculiarities; to some he may have seemed perhaps, sometimes disagreeable; those who have suffered from that, have, no doubt, buried the recollection of it in his grave; nut the idea of Dr.Hering being backward in attending to the progress of research and science, the idea that Dr.Hering was at all a visionary, in the bad sense, is a great mistake, a great unconscious slander upon the memory of his intellectual greatness. As a matter of fact, Dr. Hering was always foremost, in our school, in recognizing every forward movement. There is not a single one of the recent advances in science of which he had not, before any of his co-laborers, learned something, and it has commonly happened, during the past fifteen years, that when something new came up, and I have come to his office, I found that he had already become cognizant of the details of the subject. Some of my first information in regard to the recent revelations of the spectroscope came, to my surprise, from his lips. Whatsoever had a bearing upon Homoeopathy had for him a religious savor, and appeared to him in all the sanctity of a Divine revelation; so that if he were ever intolerant, it was with the inspiration of the Crusader fighting for the Holy Sepulchre against the infidel, or of the Covenanter, defending his Bible in the mountain passes of his native land.
My acquaintance with Dr. Hering, in a social way, and more in relation to the college faculty, was exceedingly pleasant as a rule. We did not always agree; that could not be expected; but throughout we maintained that mutual respect and affection which I am glad to recall today. The faculty meetings, held usually in his office, in deference to his years, were really club-meetings in their social aspect. They were all that we desire in a social club, and he was the illuminator of the club, always ready with some matter of interest and novelty, always ready to give of his rich store of medical information, always ready with some new point in general science with which to interest our minds, and valuable, either in society or in our professional duties; many a key-note, as we call it in the Materia Medica, I received from him in this way. Indeed, it was my practice, in these frequent convocations with Hering Guernsey, Lippe, Raue, etc., to have a little memorandum book and my lead pencil ready, and often as these golden nuggets of homoeopathic experience fell from the lips of these experts, I recorded them; I think no one furnished them more frequently then Dr. Hering. This note-book became part and parcel of my capital in professional work.
The matter I am speaking of I would not part with for any consideration. Such then, was our relation in the faculty. We all looked upon him, as a master of course, as our paternal families, and so he regarded himself; would sometimes, indeed, claim a little supremacy, and thought that he might be privileged to talk to the rest of us as to the youngest of the family.
Once it was said to him, Dr. Hering, these youngest are all about forty years of age and upwards. Boys of forty he exclaimed, in jocular contempt, and so gained his point; we were always willing enough to be considered, by him as boys of forty. and in this way we got along happily, yielding to his supremacy and always profiting by it. In his last days, fellow-members of the Institute, Dr. Hering’s heart-life seemed to undergo a special development; the Philadelphia members here present understand what I mean.
He was born with the century; the first day of january, 1800, witnessed his advent into the world; and as the year 1880 dawned he reached his eightieth anniversary. Dr. Hering realized now that the end of his time was nearing. He made all arrangements in regard to his literary work-and that work, let me assure the profession, is in able hands, and will be issued as he would have it. This done, he seemed to cling, as never before, to those who had surrounded him during the past years. He desired that we should often come to see him; to some, as to me, he said, “Here is my study (many of you know it, on the second floor of his house), you have the entree at all times-come right upstairs and knock.” This was, of course, a great privilege, of which we were not slow to avail ourselves, and to myself they were occasions of great satisfaction. The clinging of the dear old man to these friends, and to me among the rest, at this time, was touching, and, I for one, tried to be faithful to his last days, my only regret being that I had not seen him for three weeks at the time of his decease. I think that everyone of our members from Philadelphia will bear me out in saying that the kindliest recollections of Dr.Hering are those of the last six months of his life.
Dr. J.P.Dake, of nashville, next spoke as follows: Mr. President: I desire to say a few words in regard to the character and labors o our deceased brother, the father of Homoeopathy in America, Dr. Constantine Hering. And in speaking with regard to him it is understood, perhaps, by all who are present, that I was among those who differed with Dr.Hering, pointedly, and decidedly, upon several matters, and I feel that it is therefore the more fitting that I should, upon this occasion, say something.
In 1878 and 1879 he published 2 editions of his book, Sunstroke and Its Homeopathic Treatment.
Upon Hering's death in 1880 Knerr became responsible for the completion of the 10-volume Guiding Symptoms.
Dr. Knerr wrote 2-volume Repertory to the Guiding Symptoms,